Anantnag: Thousands of people living in more than 75 villages across Anantnag district in south Kashmir remain devoid of clean drinking water as four major supply schemes are still incomplete, more than ten years after work was first started on them.
The schemes were sanctioned fourteen years back, in the year 2008, with an aim to provide clean drinking water to these villages spread across Anantnag district.
“The water supply schemes included Dachnipora, Watnar, Shangus, and Tantraypora. The estimated cost of these schemes was put at Rs 18.9 crore, Rs 25.42 crore, Rs 32.85 crore, and Rs 28.48 crore, in that order,” a source in the Jal Shakti department told Kashmir Reader.
The source said that very little money was released on these projects, however. “In fact, more work has been done on the schemes in comparison to the money released. A total of Rs 2.5 crore has been spent in the initial phase of work on the Dachnipora scheme, while the money released is nowhere near this figure,” the source said.
As the projects remained pending, the government included them in the National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP), despite the fact that they were not eligible.
“To be eligible for inclusion in the NRDWP, a minimum of 25 percent of work should be complete. These schemes were in no way eligible to be included in the program,” the source said.
Despite their inclusion in the NRDWP, there has been no progress and no work whatsoever on these schemes in the last many years. People in the dependent villages continue to consume water from open, natural sources in their areas.
“The water is often contaminated and leads to waterborne diseases, and frequent disease outbreaks in these villages,” the locals that Kashmir Reader talked to said. “The situation gets particularly worse during winters as the water levels dip, and the natural water sources are often frozen,” they said.
The people said that they have had their hopes pinned on these water supply schemes for too long now. “The completion of these water supply schemes seems to be impossible,” they said.
Kashmir Reader talked to the Executive Engineer of the Jal Shakti Department for Bijbehara Circle, Sareer Ahmad Wani, who said that he has taken up the matter with the higher-ups.
“There were some queries that had been raised by the directorate. We will ensure that the objections are answered and work is started soon,” Wani told Kashmir Reader.
He said that he was hopeful that work will start soon.

Suhail A Shah